Death at the Bar

By Ngaio Marsh

A classic Ngaio Marsh novel in which a game of darts in an English pub has gruesome consequences.

At the Plume of Feathers in south Devon one midsummer evening, eight people are gathered together in the tap-room. They are in the habit of playing darts, but on this occasion an experiment takes the place of the usual game – a fatal experiment which calls for investigation.

A distinguished painter, a celebrated actor, a woman graduate, a plump lady from County Clare, and a Devonshire farmer all play their parts in the unravelling of the problem…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 3, 2009
• ISBN: 9780007344475

Ngaio Marsh

Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1895 and died in February 1982. She wrote over 30 detective novels and many of her stories have theatrical settings, for Ngaio Marsh’s real passion was the theatre. She was both an actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public’s interest in the theatre. It was for this work that the received what she called her ‘damery’ in 1966.

Reviews for Death at the Bar

[vivl_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I feel no guilt at the pleasure I get from reading Ngaio Marsh novels. Her writing is superb, her characters are intensely human and her mysteries are excellent. What more could one want?

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this is the first Marsh I've read. I found it a bit light on characterisation and rather oversophisticated technically — a crime so complicated that you can't imagine why anyone would take the trouble to commit it. The few jokes all came out of the rather undeveloped character-stereotypes, and the West Country setting was very off-the-shelf too. The story only really seemed to come to life in a couple of little scenes featuring the implausibly-literary chief constable of the county. Not in the top echelon of inter-war crime stories, but still better than a lot of more recent efforts: there are certainly worse ways of killing a couple of hours at an airport.

[mmyoung_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Among my least favourite of the Marsh's books in my current rereading of her oeuvre. It is not only drenched with sexism and classism -- it also seems to be set in some alternate universe. Finished (according to the endmatter) in May of 1939 it is set in an England where there seems to be no hint of a troubled Europe looming nearby. Reading the book without knowing the realities of politics and culture at the time one would imagine that the greatest threat to the continuation of ordered life in England was the way in which some members of the lower classes (especially those who had, perhaps, read too much) were being led astray by ideas of collectivism and the dismantling of the existing class system.

[figgles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good little quirky, but not too quirky, Ngaio Marsh. Sometimes her characters are more like caricatures but she avoids that in this Alleyn mystery. Fun read.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sorry, the only opinion I have written in my book for this is that it is "a nice little mystery."